What happens
Luigi Basko, a recent immigrant from Italy, wants to do something important for his adopted country and asks his friend Pascuale for advice. Pascuale suggests he marry his daughter Rosa, but Luigi rejects that idea and considers joining the army, the Navy and the paratroopers, each of which Pascuale discourages with a joke. At his night school class, the teacher, Miss Balding, suggests he give blood for wounded soldiers, and Luigi decides to try. He visits his bank, then the Red Cross blood center, where he is told his blood type and examined. The episode is part of the Life with Luigi series, first broadcast on October 3, 1950, starring J. Carol Nash as Luigi and Alan Reed as Pascuale.
Chicago, 1950, including Luigi's neighborhood, his night school classroom, a bank and a Red Cross blood center
Characters: Luigi Basko, Pascuale, Rosa, Miss Balding, Mr. Howard
Listen for: Luigi's attempts to find a way to serve his country, and Pascuale's jokes about the army, the Navy and the paratroopers
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.